New Day New Grow

[mpd]

After having evaluated the third coat, a fourth coat was warranted in my opinion and I put it on. It has now dried and the cabinet is as perfect as my hands can make it.

Polyurethane Finish Coat No. 4 - Front/Top Perspective View.

Polyurethane Finish Coat No. 4 - End/Top Perspective View.

The next trick here is to finish the faux dresser drawer fronts and the box trim package. Work on that will commence tomorrow. In the meantime, I have added another seedlet to the cabinet box. I'm hoping the others pop and we can get four (4) plants rocking along in no time at all.

 

[OjoRojo420]

I really do admire your work and eye for detail.

Thank you so much for sharing with all of us.

Stay safe!

 

[mpd]

Today's job was to get the faux dresser drawer fronts sanded and stained with their first coat of stain. I'm using the same Minwax #232 Red Chestnut stain on the drawer fronts as I used on the cabinet body.

Progress Photo.

I kept working at it until all the faux dresser drawer fronts had a fairly nice first coat of stain.

Cabinet Faux Dresser Drawer Fronts - First Coat of Stain Applied.

Tomorrow we'll put another coat on these rascals...

 

[Tony Aroma]

Great work and a beautiful piece of furniture!

One suggestion I have, a little late for this design, but maybe for the future: That downward-opening front requires a fair amount of space. What about splitting it down the middle and have two doors with hinges on the sides? You could put a piece of trim down the middle to cover the split. Of course it would probably be harder to hide the hinges then.

Only reason I mention this is because my cabinet is in a pretty tight space, with just enough room to open the doors. A design such as yours would not work for me as I wouldn't be able to open it all the way in front. Another consideration might be the front wall getting dirty with it laying on the floor like that and working over it.

 

[mpd]

The design is such that you don't have to have the flip-down front open to access the cabinet. You can do it from the front with just the top flipped open, or with the fold-down front partially open. I hear what you are saying about the split. If I could get the right piano hinge I would split the bitch.

I have another design of an upright cabinet that looks like a high-boy and has a hidden hinge mechanism that opens left to right instead of front down as is the case with this design.

 

[mpd]

On my lunch break today I put another coat of stain on the faux dresser drawer fronts.

Second Stain Coat Contrast Photo (Second Coat on Left and First Coat on Right).

Here's a better picture showing the depth of color differential between the two coats.

Second Stain Coat Contrast Photo.

In the end it was done and it looks like a good match to the cabinet body to me so tomorrow I will begin putting the stain on the trim.

Second Stain Coat Completion Photo.

 

[ResinKing]

Fantastic craftsmanship MPD , this is something to behold..Them monkey chairs made me chuckle.

 

[mpd]

The management has informed me that I will be facing my first test forthwith. One of my sons will be coming home (he's mentally handicapped and we don't discuss sort of thing with him) and my other son's MIL will be spending Christmas with us. She's a liberal activist and I don't care for her company, but I will make sure she enjoys her holiday with us. I don't even remember her name, but that's not important.

What's important is finishing the box and getting it into the garage where it will take up residence until further notice.

So, today I will sand and stain the trim on the box and hopefully that will be enough to allow me to go ahead and apply urethane tomorrow and Sunday. Monday I will clean up the garage to give it room (my spendthrift wife fills it with things she buys but never has any real use for - it's the power from the act of spending that counts) and that will be that.

On the plant front we have three nice seedlets now and I think things will be getting underway in that department right on schedule. I've been more or less holding them back until the box was really ready for them.

On with the job at hand.

 

[mpd]

So I got to work. I attached the front trim board and filled the holes with wood putty. Editor's note: for those of you who will be coming along and looking to follow in my footsteps, be wary of the claims of home improvement suppliers about it's matching quality as this appears to be bogus for the Elmer's brand carried by Home Depot.

In point of fact, it appears that getting wood putty to match is quite difficult and I may be forced to use sawdust (from the actual wood) and wood glue to get a better match, but time will tell.

Cabinet w/Front Top Trim Board Attached.

Staining is going to be at least a two (2) coat process and I will be putting a second coat on the dresser drawer fronts this afternoon.

Faux Dresser Drawer Front Staining Progress (unstained in left foreground and stained in right foreground)

I put some stain on the vertical trim boards of the cabinet to see what I could ascertain about future coats and I think it will be at least two (2) coats of stain to get the job done. So.

Maybe we aren't ready for the garage until Tuesday, but we will have to see...

 

[Abja Roots]

This is the kind of cabinet I would like to build for my mini pollen chucking experiments This would also work for friends contending with small places or wanting to have people over to their place, without arousing suspicion.

I'll be keeping an eye on this, and honestly probably copying this.

Thanks for sharing. Very nice.

What's the book about?

 

[mpd]

Macroeconomics. It describes the means of financing the costs of government on an unlimited basis and without taxation. Indeed, it demonstrates a fiscally-responsible plan for paying off our national debt and providing truly affordable universal education, universal health and those other entitlements we cannot seem to do without. However, this is the equivalent of heresy for a large segment of our population that believes government should be controlling our behavior, ability to profit and ability to enjoy freedom and liberty in the pursuit of happiness as we define that path to be, so getting a publisher to move this series (there will be a total of three books assuming this 623 page initial volume eventually finds its way into reading mainstream) is not an easy task, so I am marketing the book directly through the internet.

 

[mpd]

This morning I sanded down the wood putty filler and then started the staining process on the cabinet trim as I finished the staining of the faux dresser drawers last night.

Cabinet Trim Staining Progress Photo.

And when I was done with the initial coat of stain the box started to really take on character and a look of quality that I think may in fact meet the market's expectation for a high-quality box that has a high-end furniture look to it that says "not a marijuana growing operation" all over it.

Cabinet Trim Staining First Coat Photo.

Later this afternoon I will put the second coat on and then the final coat tonight. I want to stay on target for getting the urethane final coats done tomorrow.

Now back to cleaning the house for the impending holiday guests. We don't live like pigs but I want the house to look as good as it can.

 

[ArcticBlast]

man, that is impressive! that cabinet looks nicer than all of the furniture in my house!

Good luck with the guests! that's my ultimate "kryptonite": holiday visitors lol

take care bro
ArcticBlast

 

[mpd]

Thank you for the kind words, Articblast but the cabinet project has hit a snag that created a whole new level of opportunity. The cecond coat of stain is on and it is a full-fledged disaster. The wood putty shines right through it like a beacon that says, "hey, douche-bag used putty here and wasn't smart enough to fix this."

Fortunately I have just the solution; courtesy of my son who walked in and said paint the trim with a black semi-gloss and it will set off the wood and look absolutely first rate all the way; a distinctly European look that should do the trick. I will wait until this crappy stain dries and then I will paint right over the shit and then hit the faux dresser drawer front trims with the same stuff and that will be the end of that. Tomorrow we will be ready for final urethane on the faux dresser solids only and we will be done by tomorrow night/Monday morning and can assemble the final pieces!

 

[mpd]

Class picture time. Here's the Russian Roulette seedlets on Day 5.

Russian Roulette Seedlings - Day 5.

And here we have the first coat of semi-gloss black paint on the faux dresser drawer fronts of the cabinet. I already like this look better.

Cabinet Drawer Fronts w/First Coat of Black Trim Paint.

I think this is going to work out just fine. In a couple of hours I will throw the wood to the box trim with the first coat and we will start getting it on, here.

 

[mpd]

And the last work of the day. Getting late for me, so I will just post the photos of the trim.

Trim Paint-Out Progress Photo.

Trim Paint Out - First Coat Completion Photo.

 

[mpd]

I put on the second coat of trim paint this morning to all trim boards on both the cabinet and the faux dresser drawer fronts. It is tedious to be sure but someone told one time that tedium is quality expressed. I don't know if that is true, but time is the price you seem to have to pay to get a quality outcome. To be sure I have learned a lot with this cabinet build-out and it will all be applied to the actual production process if this gets beyond the concept stage and I actually undertake the construction of these cabinets on a commercial basis. I am ready to do it, but my wife has serious reservations - she says she is frightened I will end up mangling myself with the power tools. The reality it is that it would be a business that she doesn't control (read: she is concerned she might not be able to spend all the money it earns without interference). We'll see. I may put Mrs. MPD on waivers and come up with a different family line-up. We'll see.

At any rate, there is a problem getting pictures to upload this morning (site software keeps saying I don't have permission to do it - weird as that is) so I will do the pictures a bit later.

 

[mpd]

Okay, we are really cooking with gas now. I finished the second coat of trim paint and was just not satisfied, but I think the third coat did the trick. The box looks a lot better than my poor photography skills can provide to you, but it is a fair representation nonetheless.

If you look at this first photo you get an idea of the issues I have been facing with this wood putty. In the right foreground (top right area of the cabinet's front panel) you can see a color splotch. This is the wood putty. Even with darker stains it presents problems. Fortunately, this problem area will be covered by the dresser drawer fronts, so it is no big deal, but it is an area of deep concern.

Cabinet Trim Paint - Third Coat Finished: Front Perspective Photo.

This second photo shows the wiggles and ziggles down the front of the box caused by god knows what. This only became clear once the stain was on the box. Again, this is something covered by the drawers, but an area where I will be diligent in quality control for production units.

Cabinet Trim Paint - Side Perspective Photo.

The third photo shows the time I put into the detail painting. I cracked the front open a smidge (so you can see the white line of bare wood in the photo along the cabinet front and side) so I could get all the exposed wood painted in the trim without risking paint smears on the panel areas. This paint out took a lot more time because the trim was painted on the cabinet. For production units the trim will be painted separately as the panels are stained separately for these higher-end boxes.

Cabinet Trim Paint - Side Perspective Photo.

Tomorrow I will put the drawer fronts on and apply the last coats of urethane and the box will be complete.

 

[centralcoastbud]

lookin' sick MPD...i'm sure you'll get all the kinks worked out in no time.

 

[mpd]

Rats. I ran into a snag this morning. The doggone screws for the knobs are too short to go through the box wall and the faux dresser drawer fronts. I put the box on its back, drilled the holes and then used gorilla tape on all the seams on the bottom of the box.

I'll go ahead and put on the coats of urethane and then see if I can get over to Home Depot and get some longer screws. Oh God. Always somethin'...